Man Indicted In Manslaughter Case

Jcc Resident Already Held On Other Charges

September 19, 2002|By PATTI ROSENBERG Daily Press

WILLIAMSBURG — A James City man was indicted Wednesday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving and driving under the influence in connection with a head-on collision that killed a Williamsburg woman and injured her 7-year-old daughter.

Earl W. Heisler, 38, of Centerville Road, was under the influence of alcohol and drugs the evening of Aug. 26 when he swerved into oncoming traffic on News Road, colliding head-on with Paula Cromer's vehicle, said Williamsburg-James City County Commonwealth's Attorney Mike McGinty.

Cromer, the music director at Stone House Presbyterian Church and the mother of three, was flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where she died the next day. Her 7-year-old daughter was taken to Williamsburg Community Hospital to be treated for cuts and bruises.

The grand jury also returned an indictment Wednesday against Heisler for driving under the influence June 4, McGinty said. He said that charge stemmed from an incident in which Heisler and his 11-year-old daughter claimed that she was the one driving. Heisler originally was charged with child neglect, but that charge was dropped when further investigation showed that Heisler was the person driving, McGinty said.

Heisler could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

He already was being held in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail on unrelated pending charges of harassment by phone and violating a protective order.

According to Williamsburg-James City County General District Court records, Heisler previously had been convicted of public swearing, being drunk in public and possession of marijuana.

Heisler's father, Earl M. "Buddy" Heisler, was a James City County police officer fatally shot in the line of duty in 1978 when he stopped to check a suspicious vehicle parked behind a Route 60 motel.

Heisler's wife, Tina, said his substance abuse problems began when his father was killed. Until then, he had been a straight-A student, she said.

Just a few years after his father's death, Heisler's brother died when he fell asleep at the wheel and ran into an embankment on News Road, Tina Heisler said.

But her husband had been sober for the past seven years until he relapsed in June due to the stress of trying to care for two grandparents who were both suffering from Alzheimer's, she said. She said she did everything she could to try to help him, including begging authorities to keep him in jail so he couldn't hurt himself or anyone else.

"He was the kind of person who would do anything for anybody. He was a good person as long as he wasn't drinking," Tina Heisler said.

She said two families have been destroyed -- the Heislers and the Cromers.

Her husband is so devastated about taking someone's life that he's on suicide watch, Tina Heisler said, and kids at school are taunting her daughter about her father being a murderer.

Patti Rosenberg can be reached at 229-5751 or by e-mail at prosenberg@dailypress.com